Federal Election debate: Pacific Highway upgrade funding

With nine road fatalities on the Pacific Highway between Grafton and the Queensland border in the first half of this year, both sides of politics recognise that the upgrade is an important issue for voters on the New South Wales far north coast. But the dispute continues over how the project will be funded.

The Pacific Highway upgrade is one of Australia's largest infrastructure projects.

The Federal and New South Wales governments have spent billions of dollars jointly upgrading the road to dual-carriageway since 1996.

But parts of the major transport between Sydney and Brisbane remain single-lane, including areas that have been identified as accident hotspots.

New South Wales Police estimates that some days, in excess of 50,000 vehicles travel on the highway.

Senior sergeant Bill Darnell said crashes are not as common in areas that are now duplicated.

"We have a standout area through St Helena up over the top of the mountain there, a fatigue zone through the Tabbimoble straights from the Iluka turn-off up towards Ballina, and the stretch through Newrybar from Ballina north to Byron Bay," he said.

"Certainly the parts of the highway that are divided now - Tweed Heads to Byron Bay, and the Ballina bypass for my end - have seen less conflict, particularly frontal conflict where opposing directions of traffic end up crashing."

In the lead-up to this Federal election, a debate continues over who should pay for the rest of the upgrade.

About 368km of this major arterial road are now duplicated, but works are yet to be completed on the remaining 44 per cent.